FIELD EXPERIENCE III – Calgary Arts Academy

As of November 6, 2017, I have been attending Calgary Arts Academy - Youth Centre. I will be here until December 15, and will be coming back for an eight week period beginning in February. During my time, I have been one of the facilitators leading the grade 8s and 9s toward their performance at the Jubilee Auditorium on December 8. I have also been one of the coaches for the Boys Basketball team and have helped out with other events around the school. I have really enjoyed my experience thus far and look forward to building more relationships with the staff and students.

1. Personal Professional Assessments

2. School & Community

http://www.caaschool.com/http://www.taapcs.ca/about.html​​Calgary Arts Academy, home of the Pumas, is a charter school with an arts immersion approach. The Youth Centre is open to students from grades 4 to 9. It is a brand new campus with learning pods instead of a standard classroom setting. This means there are around one hundred students in each pod. The 4s and 5s work together, as do the 6s and 7s, and 8s and 9s. While this has its pumps at times, it proves to be a collaborative setting among students and staff.

The school's philosophy: "Children come first! Magic happens when you nurture the whole child: body, mind and spirit. Focusing on identified abilities, strengths and talents in a nurturing environment while learning through the Arts prepares students for success in the 21st century."

Their mission: "Our mission is to provide a collaborative, democratic learning environment, empowering each individual to become self-directed, life-long learners who value community-focused and citizen based action facilitated through effective communication, collaboration, critical and creative thinking."

What is a charter school?Charter schools have been in Alberta since 1994. They are tuition-free schools with no religious affiliations, accessible to all students. Charter schools provide innovative ways of learning, while encouraging student leadership, as well as parental involvement to the school. All staff are certified to teach in Alberta, and there is total dedication to student achievement of excellence.

The building itself used to be a bakery. There are still some bricks visible of the old establishment, but as you can see in the pictures below, the building took on a complete makeover. The pods have plenty of natural light in big open spaces, with rolling tables to accommodate various learning settings. The staff/lunch room is fairly proportioned, and there are multiple staff meetings here each week. Almost everyday, some classes will be held in the TransAlta Performing Arts Studios building, where there are multiple studios for art classes to take place.

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3. Curriculum Information

The school is centralized around the arts. The facilitators will organize events and performances, and find ways to incorporate the core subjects within them. The approach is very interdisciplinary, which is nice to see the interdisciplinary university class be done in practice.Calgary Arts Academy does not actually grade Drama and Visual Art, as the students are generally well above grade level in these subjects, so assessing them becomes somewhat redundant. Every other grade is assessed at grade level, as any normal school, with the Alberta Education program of studies as the curriculum base.. Generally speaking, students are assessed formatively through everyday behaviour and engagement. There is the occasional summative assessment, but these are few and far between.The school does not provide the students with homework, and while students are given class time to complete assignments, they are expected to finish any incomplete work on their own time, which may entail taking work home with them.

Students can have three results on their report cards. The first is a B for beginner, the second is I for intermediate, and the third is M for mastery. In the grand scheme of things, it is pretty rare for students to receive a B, and this will likely result in a meeting with the students’ parents.When students are given their report cards, they are given a grade of one of the options above, along with a positively mannered write up, that will focus on the behaviour of the students. Focusing on the positives reinforces the student’s behaviour and tendencies in class.

4. Planning Resources

Planning is done in multiple forms at CAA. However, in the 8/9 team, there are weekly meetings to discuss everything going on within the pod. There are also weekly staff-wide meetings on Mondays after school to cover any school updates. Below

5. Teaching & Lesson Plans

Teaching at CAA is often done in a collaborative setting. This goes to show how adaptable the school's setting truly is. Attached below are some actual lesson plans that proved to be successful, from not only my end, but also my partner teacher's and the students' end as well.

6. Student Assessment

At CAA, students are constantly under assessment. While they do have some summative assessment (in the form of performance, exams, etc.) this generally only counts for a small percentage of students' overall grades. Students are constantly under assessment through engagement, attentiveness, and willingness to participate/take risks. In the Jubilee rehearsals, this continues to prove true. Students will demonstrate their understanding of the tasks at hand, and their collective formative assessment amounts to approximately 75% of their grade. Specifically, I am looking for certain curricular outcomes within the Drama 8/9 program of studies, such as "extend development of sensory awareness" or "extend the ability to explore meaning through abstract concepts". Students are constantly reminded that they are constantly being assessed, and have many cross curricular outcomes within the performance process, including math, science, social, and ELA.